In recent decades, neoliberal reforms have spread across Latin America. Despite different accounts showing the adverse social impact of these reforms, what seems lacking are historical analyses of why and how neoliberal policies occurred in this region. For instance, there are only rare accounts of how dictatorships in the 1970s prepared the…

This article discusses the multi-faceted challenges experienced by professionals embarking on professional development online. It is argued that the barriers to successful completion identified in the literature reflect the complex, overlapping, and not always supportive social systems in which professional learners are embedded. A…

Edgar Snow scored an extraordinary scoop in 1936 when he persuaded Mao Zedong to tell his story. The resulting book--"Red Star Over China"--was a best-seller in the West and translated editions caused a sensation in China. Adult education was the centrepiece of Communist revolution and featured prominently in Red Star. It is now the…

This article is part of an international research project which is investigating the changing nature of the academic profession in twenty-two countries in the twenty-first century. This article focuses on the discourses of global competition; the permeation of a business ethos and higher education values; the quest for efficiency; diversification…

This project studied four career college and school campuses in Texas that had higher than average graduation rates and lower than average student loan default rates to determine what they did to achieve these positive outcomes. The visits to the campuses found that a conscious, concerted effort to integrate students into the academic and social…

A position paper which defines continuities and proposes actions to overcome dichotomies in the self, time, generations, biological and social rhythms, species and the unified world system. (ED)

This article analyzed reputation and social identity as a prelimenary understanding of the adolescent girl's social world. (Author/RK)

McLaren's recent (post-2000) writings promote a form of agency called "revolutionary critical pedagogy," and a type of agent, the "committed intellectual" (McLaren 2005b, p. 253-281). But one can find an earlier agent-type in McLaren's (1986) "Schooling as a Ritual Performance", the "liminal servant," that…

The author describes the model of social behavior in a social system first framed by Jacob Getzels, with the assistance of Egon Guba, in the middle 1950s. Significant changes in the conceptualization of organizational functioning have occurred in the years since then, though the methodological processes for studying that functioning have remained…

THE AUTHOR REVIEWS ONE OF THE BASIC SOCIAL SCIENCE CONCEPTS AS IT IS UTILIZED BY PROFESSIONAL SOCIAL SCIENTISTS, MAKING A CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATION OF THE TERM "SYSTEM" AS IT RELATES TO THE FIELD OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION. INCLUDED IN THE ANALYSIS ARE KEY IDEAS EXPRESSED BY THE TERM, DISTINCTIONS THAT SERVE AS VALUABLE GUIDES IN…

THIS BIBLIOGRAPHY IS INTENDED TO PROVIDE RAPID, PRELIMINARY ACCESS FROM SEVERAL BROAD, SOCIAL SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVES TO LITERATURE ON EDUCATIONAL INNOVATION. ENTRIES ARE DIVIDED INTO FIVE CATEGORIES--(1) SOCIAL STRUCTURE, SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATION, (2) SOCIAL STRUCTURE, SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATION IN EDUCATION, (3)…

Major elements of the theory of social behavior formulated by Talcott Parsons are applied to a study of organization. The organizational model developed is based on Parsons' four functional imperatives of goal attainment, adaptation, integration, and pattern maintenance. Organizations are regarded as social systems distinguished by different…

This paper formulates a semiotic metatheory (theory of change) of human communication, in six analytical steps: First, semiology indicates that the coding function in communication relies on the nature of the signifier and the signified. Second, the nature of coding (as distinct from its function) is best described by social systems theory. Third,…

This essay addresses the issue of the theory of the structure of class and education. The authors, who label themselves "activists in education," perceived a dichotomy in the understanding and practice of those with whom they work. Education studies reproduce this dichotomy, and people working in the field of education have a variety of…

Network Analysis is an observational system focusing on the relationships of individuals within a system--their subgroups, their leaders, and the frequency of their communications. The strength of relationships can be measured by examining the incidence and duration of intercommunications. Using data accumulated by questioning each member of the…